Photo: Rohan Thomson
Her first official day in her new job as Director of Auckland Art Gallery is May 1, and her focus already says Auckland Art Gallery is how to up visitor numbers and income. Kirsten Paisley takes on the job after workplace harassment allegations saw previous appointee Gregory Burke withdraw from taking up the role.
"As Deputy Director of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, Paisley saw audiences grow by 10% year on year, overseeing a collection of worth an estimated 6-billion Australia dollars.annual turnover of over AUD$54 million.
Kirsten has over two decades of leadership and management experience in Australian art museums and contemporary art spaces.
At the NGA she has led initiatives to establish a visitor experience team, create a dedicated children's gallery and implement a major new contemporary art commissioning programme. She supported significant inaugural commissions and exhibitions with artists such as New Zealanders Jess Johnson and Simon Ward, and Angelica Mesiti, whose NGA commission led to her selection as Australia's 2019 Venice Biennale representative.
In the major exhibitions programme, Ms Paisley secured Cartier: The Exhibition, which showcased more than 300 spectacular items, such as royal tiaras, necklaces, brooches and earrings, and was viewed by over 200,000 visitors. In addition, Ms Paisley led an international curatorial team to develop the major exhibition Contemporary Worlds chronicling the explosion of contemporary Indonesian art post the fall of the Suharto regime. This is due to open at NGA in June this year; the first of its scale in Australia.
Chris Brooks: "Kirsten has personally raised several million dollars towards the realisation of indigenous Australian and international contemporary art projects at the Gallery, such as the recently unveiled infinity room, The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens, by Yayoi Kusama and the soon to be unveiled works by artists, Entang Wiharso, Eko Nugroho and Melati Suryodarmo. Perhaps of greatest significance, over 18 months of engagement Kirsten brokered and secured a major six-year $4 million indigenous arts partnership with Wesfarmers Arts, including an international tour of the shared collections through Asia announced in October 2018."
Paisley's senior roles include eight years as Director of the Shepparton Art Museum in regional Victoria.
